Good morning and welcome to day 26 of the guardian.co.uk's daily live World Cup blog, wherever you are in the world ... We hope this blog will provide news, predictions, pontifications, colour from our team in South Africa, plus lots of pointing outwards; to your comments below the line, to the best things we've seen on the web and to various World Cup randomania. The plan is to update the blog from now until around 5pm UK time, with our minute-by-minute coverage of Uruguay v Holland coming up at 7pm this evening.

9.30am: Pointed elbows. Jostling. Contortions of head and body into the tiniest of spaces, like playing Twister: The Tube version. The cries of "Move up, please". More pushing. The tannoy announcer. "We apologise for the delay, this train is being held because of a passenger alarm at Victoria." Waiting. More waiting. "We apologise but this train is being taken out of service." Tube departs. Tube arrives. And another great push and squeeze begins. Hello again London, glorious London.

9.40am: I arrived back in London on the Red Eye from Johannesburg yesterday, having been fortunate enough to watch 13 games in the flesh. The pick? Tough one, that. Probably Ghana v Uruguay, although USA v Slovenia and Cameroon v Denmark were great too. Only I had two genuine stinkers, Algeria v Slovenia and Paraguay v Japan, which is a pretty good return, all told. What about you?

"I'm embarrassed by what is being asked by the British press. That is truly shameful. They have been speculating about an action that happens on a football pitch and is dealt with in the laws of the game. It happened [to Harry Kewell] in Australia's game with Ghana. It happened in 1990 when Uruguay played Spain and a player on the goalline blocked a shot with both hands.

"It was an instinctive act, nothing more. Suárez couldn't have foreseen that, afterwards, Ghana would miss the penalty. Don't talk to me about a lack of humility. The Uruguayan people bring out their collective personal strength when they have to. We are very proud, and we're upset by this topic. We're proud of our performances and what we've contributed to this World Cup. Uruguay went through the three previous games with hardly a yellow card, so please don't tell me we're cheats."

10.03am: This from Hiraldo_TIFC, one of the Guardian Fans' Network members:

"Would a resounding German World Cup win, coupled with an impressive CL run by Bayern lead to greater Bundesliga coverage on UK television? I used to watch a lot of Serie A, but that's not so readily available now. When I lived in a house with Sky, I watched a bit of the Spanish Primera Division but was nearly always underwhelmed. Why not give Bundesliga a go? I spent a week or so working in Abu Dhabi the other year and they had it on TV a fair bit. Seemed a league worthy of coverage."

There is a reasonable amount of Bundesliga coverage on ESPN, ChuckStick, although it is shunted around the schedules a bit. Last season, for instance, the big Saturday early evening game was rarely shown live.

10.23am: Meanwhile Uefa president Michel Platini has praised Europe's three World Cup semi-final teams for promoting young, creative players, adding: "Can all of this be put down to mere good luck? I don't think so." In a column for www.uefa.com, Platini added:

"It represents a victory for the beautiful game, with the accent placed on attacking football. It is just reward for the long-term efforts of three associations who have invested in education and training. Three teams with youth and freshness at their heart, deploying playing systems that leave considerable room for creativity."

"The fact that the Dutch have mostly grinded out victories does not reflect a diminished ambition or change of direction at all. It's merely been a function of coming up against deep-lying teams, difficult conditions (the heavy pitch in Port Elizabeth made it impossible for Robben to accelerate against Brazil in the quarterfinals) and not quite clicking up front. There's every chance that all the obituary writers will quickly turn around to celebrate the resurrection of Total Football if a few well-executed attacking moves come off against limited Uruguay on Tuesday. Then we'll read that van Marwijk has given the team it's "true identity" back, and other nonsense. It's high time the old stereotypes were ditched, regardless of the result. Dutch soccer itself already did it a while back. Maybe the rest of the world should follow suit. "

10.44am: Personally think most of what Rafael says about the Dutch can be applied to Spain too. Clearly their attack has failed to fire, and clearly Fernando Torres is not fit. But Germany, unlike most of the teams at this World Cup, will attack Vicente Del Bosque's side, which may create space for Andres Iniesta and others to counterattack. Spain were clearly much better against Paraguay when Cesc Fasbregas replaced Torres (four shots in 56 minutes with Torres, 11 in 34 without him), but will Del Bosque dare switch things tomorrow night?

10.50am: Meanwhile this from George Thomson about watching games in South Africa:

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My first two games were France vs Uruguay and England vs Algeria. Both games immediately entered my 'Top three worst live games ever seen' list, alongside St Johnstone 0-0 Falkirk in 1996. In the meantime I passed on a ticket to Argentina vs South Korea, which ended 4-1. You can imagine my joy. When I went to England vs Germany, I almost celebrated Klose's goal – the sight of actual football happening in front of me was too exciting. Ps I'm glad you're enjoying London, but don't you miss South African internet connections already… (you'll probably get this email on Friday).

Too right about the internet. Anyone else want to share their experiences of matches in South Africa?

11am: On Twitter OptaJoe mentions that:

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21 - Mark van Bommel has won more tackles than any other player at the 2010 #worldcup finals. Spoiler. #NED

An even more amazing stat is that Van Bommel hasn't been booked once during this World Cup - in the space of a couple of minutes against Brazil he could have seen yellows for tripping Kaka, I think, and blatantly clipping Lucio.

Interesting read, Andy. But as I argued in the comments section my post-match blog, I'm not sure Suarez's crime was any greater than, say, bringing someone from behind down when they are one-on-one with the goalkeeper, say. He cheated, was punished, and Gyan had the chance to put Ghana through ... alas, he missed.

11.18am: For what it's worth ... Paul the Octopus, whose predictions have been 100% correct so far, has gone for Spain to beat Germany

11.31am: However, and I can't quite believe I'm devoting so much time to a "psychic" cephalopod (Living TV, here I come), Paul the Octopus did predict Spain to beat Germany. As the Reuters news agency reports:

With a 100 percent record so far, the British-born aquarium dweller at Sea Life in Oberhausen, western Germany has become a celebrity having correctly predicted a series of German wins and even Germany's surprise group stage loss to Serbia. On Tuesday, Paul once again was given the choice of picking food from two different plastic containers lowered into his tank - one decorated with a Spanish flag and one with a German flag. The container which Paul opens first is seen as his pick.

He settled on both containers at first in a sign of hesitation before opening the box with the Spanish flag. The decision was broadcast live on several news channels in Germany, although commentators immediately cast doubt over the prediction by Paul, who was born in Weymouth, England. While Paul has been faultless at the World Cup so far, he is not infallible - at Euro 2008 he incorrectly picked Germany as the victor against Spain.

11.38am: This from Mike Cameron, via email:

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"From a report of England 2-1 Portugal from the 1966 World Cup: 'two minutes later when Jackie Charlton gave inspiration to a certain Uruguayan by tipping a goalbound shot over the crossbar.' No booking followed, nor any further Fifa reparations. You see, England started it, so can we move on now?

"If you find the greatest tournament on earth boring, then you probably shouldn't be there," he told BBC's Match of the Day magazine. "I've been having a great time here and have cherished every second I've played at the World Cup. Beating England 4-1 has to be my highlight because it showed that, despite what people may say or write, Germany is still one of the best footballing nations in the world."

11.55am: More of your South Africa experiences - this time from Greg Fearn:

Had a wonderful 10 days in SA (apart from one catastrophic Sunday afternoon in some obscure farming town). I went to Brazil v Chile at Ellis Park (nice area by the way!) and got talking to Howard Webb's dad in the security check queue. I told him I was a Chesterfield fan and he informed I had a surprise waiting. Once through he introduced me to David Elleray who infamously ruled out a legitimate goal for us in the 1997 FA Cup semi-final against Boro and a place in history as the lowest placed club to ever get to the final. After getting a photo with him and Mr Webb (lovely fella, very pleased son had a stormer), I told Elleray I was a Chesterfield fan. His response was to say "Oh my god, I'm so sorry!". After 13 years I had a personal apology! He was surprisingly charming, and we talked about the Lampard non goal the previous day. He wasn't impressed but obviously he's got a bit of history in that department so he didn't say too much! Also, can you ask how people got on with buying tickets on the street. It appeared bizarrely hit and miss to me. We tried for Spain v Chile in Pretoria and nothing doing anywhere. Yet in Bloemfontein there was loads of tickets floating about. Weird.

12.03am: The Associated Press is reporting that two Italian men have died after being shot after apparently arguing about the World Cup records of Italy and Germany.

Both victims were taken to a hospital with head wounds after the Monday morning shooting in Hannover. A 47-year-old Italian man died shortly afterward and police said Tuesday that his 49-year-old friend died of his injuries overnight. Police say the two men stopped in to the bar after leaving the Italian restaurant where they worked. They then got into the argument with a German man over the past World Cup successes of three-time champion Germany and four-time winner Italy before the shots were fired. Police are still looking for the 42-year-old suspected gunman.

12.13am: More of your experiences of this World Cup, this time from David in South Africa:

USA v England, Rustenburg: pretty dire especially as anticipated a tour de force from Rooney. Italy v Paraguay in Cape Town: got drenched en route, but certainly witnessed signs of Italy's crumbling empire. Greece vs Nigeria in Bloemfontein: horribly disappointed with my adopted African side, especially when they should have buried a mediocre Greece. Slovakia v Paraguay in Bloem: another drab spectacle with the Slovakians managing to run around aimlessly for 90 minutes. Holland vs Cameroon in Cape Town: disappointing action on the field, considering it was a dead rubber. I had high hopes for this one, but Cameroon had shot themselves in the foot by this stage already. Spain v Portugal in Cape Town: great atmosphere, like most of the matches, but also failed to live up to the pre-match hype. Ronaldo was just awful, running around sulking.

Tonight I'm off to Holland vs Uruguay and I hope it's a cracker. The weather's looking good and the Oranje Army is already milling around the city centre. All in all, the game's have been fantastic live viewing, even if the the football hasn't always been stellar.

12.23am: Yesterday Fifa lifted its threat to suspend Nigeria from all "Fifa-related activities", including an annual grant of $250,000 after the country's president Goodluck Jonathan reversed a ban on the national team participating in international competitions. But Fifa has again warned the Nigeria FA that: "We are monitoring the situation and we will continue to monitor the situation. You always have to avoid political interference..."

12.36am: Werder Bremen general manager Klaus Allofs insists there have been no "concrete bids" for playmaker Mesut Ozil. He told Bild: "Now he is playing a fantastic World Cup campaign, there is definitely increasing interest. But when it comes down to concrete bids, nothing has been done. We want him to stay on and actually there is no news. There are no indications he does not want to see out his contract at our club."

12.46pm: This from Opta:

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Only 53% of Holland's passes have been in the opposition half at the 2010 #world cup - the lowest proportion of any team. Patient.

12.56pm: More from Laurent Blanc, who has told a news conference that he followed France's World Cup campiagn "with great sadness." He added: I was disappointed by the results and I was particularly shocked by some behaviour. However, I'm not the bogeyman. It is not my responsibility to take disciplinary action." When was asked about the futures of Patrice Evra, Franck Ribery and Eric Abidal, who were the supposed troublemakers in the squad, Blanc said. "I shall select them if I think they are the best players available," he said. "I shall have to make choices and, perhaps, some of the players who were in South Africa will not be chosen if I decide they are not the best in their position."

1.32pm: Can I just say that I hope you appreciate the (genuine) pic above as I'm extremely scared of octopi and it was quite traumatic to crop. Thanks. Meanwhile, here's a good blog from a fan travelling around the World Cup. Enjoy his take on the Paraguay v Spain game, celebrating Africa's humanity and pictures of well-cooked meat.

1.44pm: The talk in the office when I came in this morning was of how Cesc Fábregas should come in for Spain in a five-man midfield with Fernando Torres dropping to the bench. It now seems that may not happen, as Fábregas was injured in training yesterday. AP reports:

Fábregas could miss tomorrow's World Cup semi-final against Germany after getting injured in training. The Spanish football federation says Fábregas had scans on his right leg after hurting it in a closed training session yesterday. He will rest today and remain under observation.

Fábregas has played 93 minutes across three of Spain's five matches so far but is in contention for a starting spot against Germany after impressing in the quarter-final win over Paraguay as a second-half replacement for Torres.

1.53pm: The data boys have been blogging again ... this time on what the data tells us about each team's performance in the tournament so far. It includes frankly shocking stats such as England had one of the highest shooting accuracy percentages – 53.1% ... delve a little deeper and you see that Greece were fifth with 50%. It's a funny old game.

2.10pm: This one should probably be filed under stories regarding people with too much time on their hands ...

The former Liverpool striker Craig Johnston has written a 12-page (12! twelve!!!) letter to Sepp Blatter criticising the jabulani. Johnston, who developed the Adidas Predator boot, has collated criticism of the ball from players and coaches and delivered a detailed and technical description of the problems. He writes (probably after opening with Dear Mr Blatter and putting his address in the top right-hand corner ...):

"If a sponsor came into your office before the World Cup and said: 'We are going to give you a new, perfectly round match ball, the players won't like it at all, there will be more mistakes made than in any other World Cup, there will be less goals scored, less free-kicks scored, less passes complete, less control by players and roughly 70% of crosses and shots on goal will miss wide and go way over the crossbar. What would you say to them?'

"I am risking my reputation and goodwill within certain football circles by writing this open letter to yourself and anybody else who is interested in the Jabulani ball issue and why its endorsement by FIFA could ruin the game as we now know it."

Fifa says the Jabulani will be one of the topics debated by the national team coaches at a World Cup debrief expected to be held in September.

2.18pm: This from our Spanish football correspondent, Sid Lowe:

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When Pep Guardiola found out he had booked into same hotel as Spain, he changed hotels. Class.

2.23pm:

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Hello again from Sean Ingle. Speaking of Spain, I've just had an email from Castrol Performance Data suggesting that Spain should choose Pedro Rodriguez in attacking midfield if they drop Fernando Torres, with David Villa leading the attacking line. Their reasoning is as follows:

The 22-year-old has made three cameo appearances so far at the 2010 FIFA World CupTM and his stats show that he has fitted in well within the set-up. His higher work-rate is reflected by his passing frequency: on average, he passes the ball to one of his teammates every 1 minute and 22 seconds. The quality of his distribution is also reflected by his 86% passing success rate. His ability to outmuscle his opponents has seen him win half of his duels, outperforming David Silva ...

However, Pedro is not the only option at [Vicente] Del Bosque's disposal. If the Spanish head-coach wants to keep David Villa on the left hand side of attack where he has been at his most efficient, cutting back into the middle to unleash fiery right footed shots, Del Bosque could start with Fernando Llorente up-front. The 6ft 5in Athletic Bilbao striker made a positive impression when he replaced Torres against Portugal. His presence troubled the Portuguese defence: he unleashed two attempts in only 31 minutes, including one on target, and also won an impressive 71% of duels. This could be handy against a physical German backline.

Or to put it another way, play anyone except Torres.

2.30pm Meanwhile Craig Thomas emails in re: Luis Saurez's handball.

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The main point is the gaping hole in the laws of the game. An incident like that, which denies a certain goal, should be judged differently. In rugby, if deliberate (and/or persistent) foul play prevents the scoring of a try, the referee can award a penalty try: why can't a similar thing happen in football? There's no element of doubt in the Uruguay v Ghana instance, so it's hardly controversial for the referee to have the power to award a goal. And I think he can still give Suarez a red card - a double punishment in the same way that a last-man tackle in the box warrants a red and a penalty. Indeed, football has a lot to learn from rugby, both in terms of rules and attitudes. Video replays have worked well in rugby for years: if a game is televised and officials have access to video replays, why not use them? The false distinction of one set of rules for World Cup games and Sunday-morning amateur matches is nonsense. Of course, rugby is the superior game - but then I'm Welsh, so I would say that, wouldn't I?

Don't disagree with bring some form of video replays, as I've mentioned before. But as things stand the referee and Saurez did exactly what they should have done: the referee did things by the rulebook, the player did the best for his team.

"I don't know where it has come from but it is not true. It's bizarre. We obviously work with lots of different brands and the FA have used the Facebook platform and the England team have a page. We've obviously been talking to them about those sorts of things, just like any other brand."

3pm: Holland fans are inevitably colouring Cape Town orange. "We never expected to get past Brazil, so this is a really fantastic moment. We've got so far now we have to take the World Cup home," said Frank Lamers, from Schayk, one of the guys pictured in an orange pilot's uniform. "I remember watching the Dutch lose World Cup finals in the seventies as a boy. It is now or never for us. Mentally the team is absolutely together."

3.08pm: Re: my closing comment at 2.38pm. I'm not saying the rules shouldn't be changed in future so that a deliberate handball on the line counts as a goal. As I've argued previously:

The history of football rules is one of exploitation, followed, several years later, by correction. Until 1891, for instance, there were no referees or penalties, because it was assumed that a gentleman would never intentionally foul. Instead players would appeal to, then debate with, touchline umpires for justice. But by the 1870s, players were making "vexatious and unmeaning calls [for fouls] ... on the most frivolous pretexts," according to the Sportsman, a popular paper of the day. A decade later, the argument for neutral on-field referees had become overwhelming, and the laws were changed.

Rules have also been altered to make football more exciting. As far back as 1925 the offside rule was ripped up after fears the game was becoming too defensive. The result? Total goals scored in the English leagues rose from 4,700 to 6,373 in one season. More modern changes - red cards for professional fouls and no tackling from behind (to combat Claudio Gentile, Vinnie Jones and their ilk), and the revised backpass rule (introduced after a World Cup-record low of 2.21 goals per game in Italia 90) - have all come after this same process: exploitation, then correction.

3.20pm: Fernando Torres has been chatting and reckons that this Spain team will be talked about for years to come if they beat Germany tomorrow. Then again, doubts remain as to his own participation in the semi-final. The Liverpool striker said:

"No player is assured of a place in the starting XI. A player has to give 100% in his fight for a place in the team. But if he isn't given the nod by the boss, then he has to cheer on the side from the sidelines. If I score against Germany and it takes us to the final that would be unbelievable. I hope history can be repeated but above all, that the team wins. We have done well in our last games against them but this German team is much better than the previous sides we have faced. They have proved to be one of the favourites in this tournament without a doubt.

"Of course it's a success for us as this is the first time our nation has achieved this but we are aware that we may never get this chance again. We have the right to dream and to play a wonderful game against Germany. We want to make sure that people will still be talking about this Spain team in two years' time or even longer."

3.35pm: Germany may have edged ahead of Spain in the outright betting (well, according to Betfair, anyway), but Bastian Schweinsteiger insists the Spanish are still favourites for tomorrow's encounter and that the side that beat them in the Euro 2008 final are still "the better team on paper". Schweinsteiger said:

"Losing a final always causes frustration and disappointment but Spain were definitely the better team. On paper Spain are still the better team but I think we have shown in our last two games that we can beat teams that appear the better ones on paper. For me, Spain are the best team in the world. It will be tough just like it was against England and Argentina but I've a lot of faith in this team because we've seen what we can do if we all pull together."

England, better on paper?

3.50pm:More reaction to Germany's treacherous octopus. "This is not a good omen," wrote Bild online, while Tanja Munzig, a spokeswoman for Sea Life in Oberhausen, added: "We were all a little bit shocked when Paul picked Spain. To err is not only human - animals can also make mistakes. Let's hope Paul got this one wrong. Maybe Paul was just trying to give Spain a false sense of security." The canny invertebrate.

4pm: Lots of emails about Saurez's handball - this is Daniel Ramos's take:

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Much has been said about the hand of Suárez, but nobody has asked about the gaze of the German goalkeeper in the denied goal to Germany. He knew that he took the ball from inside, several photos show that he looked at the ball behind the line, so why nobody has asked him about his role in this incident? At least Suárez was sanctioned with the red card and Uruguay with the penalty. The silence of the German keeper is also something to discuss in terms of sportmanship.

4.10pm: Better news for Spain: tests have shown that Cesc Fabregas has no bone injury and he may be fit to play in tomorrow's World Cup semi-final against Germany. The Spanish Football Federation said in a statement: "The tests have ruled out any type of bone injury so the player could be available to play against Germany. He has not been ruled out for the game tomorrow."

4.20pm: Another email, this time from Ben Smith:

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At 2:30 Craig Thomas asserted that 'The false distinction of one set of rules for World Cup games and Sunday-morning amateur matches is nonsense. How exactly is that nonsense? As I've been saying to anyone who'll listen, including my entirely disinterested girlfriend, the beauty of Football is in the fact that people who play in the World Cup are only doing to a higher standard what we all do on a Sunday morning. The distinction I seek to make is not between professional and amateur it's been the top and the bottom of the pro game. Goal line technology etc would be affordable at international level and for perhaps Europes top leagues but, would it also be attainable for leagues in developing nations for example? If we allowed it in some games we would be saying that they were more deserving of correct decisions than others, most likely the "richest" games. I find that totally unfair. Fans of rich clubs or nations are no more deserving of accurate decisions than a team in the bottom tier of any given Football association.

Not sure I agree with this Ben. Are you really saying the World Cup and Premier League has similar resources and standards to the Conference as things stand? There's certainly a huge difference between pitches, say, and referees. At some point, also, you have to have a cut-off point. Billions of people care about World Cup matches; thousands about the lowest rung of pro football. Other sports have decided where this cut-off point is without the world ending; why can't football?

4.45pm: Ninety per cent of Germans with TV sets watched their side's 4-0 demolition of Argentina, according to Fifa. An average of 27.7m people sat glued to the game, just below the nation's most-watched Germany match ever, the 2006 semi against Italy, which was seen by 29.66m.

5pm: Time on the blog. Be sure to join Paul Doyle from around 6.30pm for live MBM coverage of Holland v Uruguay. The blog will be back at the same time tomorrow. Thanks for all your emails, have a good night.